Fairy Wars: Fall of Yggdrasil
by SVFFR
Summary: The game has become life. Kirito is a new player who migrated to ALO from another game due to a request from his sister. One month after he begins playing, he is declared a Renegade (again) and forced(?) to undergo the Transmigration Ritual to reset his character to level 1! Includes characters from all arcs and spinoffs.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:** I own nothing. Assume this applies to the whole fic.

* * *

 **-«Prologue»-**

 **Chapter 1 – Intro to ALO**

* * *

 **4th Altar of Ascension, Salamander territory**

Short, red hair. Pointed ears like all the other fairy races, but decorated with a single red teardrop earring on the left ear. Default player height. Renegade crest located on upper-right wing. Last seen wearing a black cloak with red accents (crest displayed prominently on back) and unarmed, but favors using a single one-handed sword with no offhand. Extremely proficient at grounded combat. Disdains ranged magic, but reasonably skilled with self-enhancement. No other notable features.

Kirito smirked as he read his Renegade profile while he waited for the ritual to start.

 _[Catalyst confirmed. Starting Transmigration Ritual…]_

 _[Congratulations, «Player»! As a result of your efforts in clearing the quests scattered across the lands, you have earned the right to undergo «Transmigration»!]_

 _[This action will reset almost all player progress in Alfheim Online, including your level, all items*, and all quests, dungeons, and NPC interactions.]_

 _[*Mythical items may be re-obtained through a unique quest available at max level.]_

"They even thought of that? Not that I have one of the national treasures, but still… that's some pretty impressive forethought. Then again, maybe the fact that I'm impressed just means I'm an still an amateur? Hahaha…"

 _[In exchange, you will be allowed to select a new race and avatar, keeping progress on learned proficiencies and any allocated stat points.]_

A quick swipe with one hand brought up the familiar «Status» window.

 _Name: «Kirito», Lv.110 (Max), EXP 0/- (Total 756794)_

 _Race: High Salamander (Ascension Complete)_

 _STR 325 (+50, +25%), END 210, INT 220 (+10), WIS 247 (+50, -5%), Remaining: 0_

"Good to go." A pause. "I shouldn't have let her talk me into those ten points… Too late now, I guess."

 _[Please select your new race:]_

 _[Cait Sith / Gnome / Imp / Leprechaun / Pooka / Salamander / Spriggan / Sylph / Undine]_

The nine fairy races of Alfheim appeared, each race represented by a small character model displaying with its default look on top of the race's insignia. Other than aesthetics, each race also had its own unique racial magic tree and unique passive ability. While there were other games that employed things like races and classes as methods of governing player stats and abilities, Alfheim Online took it to a whole new level. In addition to gameplay differences such as base stats and weapon affinities, the nine player races of the game each had their own territory, capital city, and even government, all of which could be controlled by player actions in some way.

Kirito considered his options briefly.

He was currently a Salamander. Salamanders received a large bonus to Strength, abbreviated STR, which affected physical attack power, in exchange for a small penalty to Wisdom (WIS), which affected magical defense. The other stats were Endurance (END) for physical defense and Intelligence (INT) for magical attack. The Salamanders' unique racial ability allowed them to be resurrected without any penalties. Normally, a player lost all their current experience points towards the next level and a portion of their money and inventory if they died. Being resurrected before the death timer counted to zero halved this penalty, and Salamanders ignored it altogether.

Being a combat junkie who never really got into the magic system of Alfheim in the first place, Kirito considered Salamanders the ideal race for his playstyle. He tried not to die too often in the first place, but those few times he had, he was also thankful for the racial passive. There were a couple of time when there had been nobody around to actually resurrect him though.

 _I'm going to miss that STR bonus, if nothing else… Well, at least I won't take extra magic damage anymore._

His eyes flickered over to the Spriggans, the only other race that boasted a STR bonus, albeit a lesser one. He had no idea what illusion magic was good for since he'd never seen a Spriggan use it against him in battle, but then again it was rare to see Spriggans in Player-vs-Player (PvP) combat in the first place. Their racial passive gave them a bonus to treasure hunting, which meant most of them spent their time exploring the game's many randomly-generated dungeons. Most of his current gear was sourced from one Spriggan expedition or another, since he couldn't afford the price of custom-forged equipment from the Leprechauns.

The setting of Alfheim was a large continent surrounded by an endless ocean. The continent itself was divided into ten different territories, one for each of the races, surrounding a central territory that was neutral ground. If one were to liken the position of the races to a clock's face, then the Cait Sith territory would be at the 9 o'clock position in the west, the Salamander territory would be at the 6 o'clock position in the south, and the Undine territory would be at the 3 o'clock position in the east. The Salamanders were bordered by the Sylphs to the west (southwest of the continent) and the Imps to the east (southeast of the continent). The northern half of the continent was divided among the Pooka and the Gnomes in the northwest and the Leprechauns and Spriggans in the northeast.

Since Kirito was technically a wanted man (or Salamander), whose territory was in the south, it would be ideal if he "escaped" to the north. He had Sylph friends and allies, but they unfortunately shared a border with the Salamanders, and the two races were at war all the time.

 _Plus, I don't think I'd hear the end of it from Leafa if I joined the Sylphs. That Spriggan option is looking more appealing now though. Opposite side of the continent from Sylphs and Salamanders both._

Still, it wouldn't hurt to consider the other options. With a few clicks and a sweeping motion, a new screen popped up that listed the nine races and their abilities.

 _Cait Sith. No base stat changes. Lightweight. Uses Lunar magic. Racial passive grants them beast traits and allows them to tame monsters and grants increased mobility, among other things. Mascot race the first. The ears and tail look cute on girls, but it's not for me. No stat bonuses hurts too. They have to rely on tamed monsters or their allies for a lot of things._

 _Gnomes. Large bonus to END with a penalty to INT. Heavyweight. Uses Earth magic. Racial passive grants a boost to mining efficiency and rarity of resources obtained. The "tank" race. Heavy armor lets them double up on physical resistance and makes it near impossible to beat them that way. Not my thing though. Mining's boring._

 _Imps. Small bonus to INT. Lightweight. Uses Dark magic. Racial passive allows for underground flight. Being able to fly without sunlight or moonlight is useful, but most of Alfheim is aboveground. Besides, what am I gonna do with an INT bonus? And they share a border with the Salamanders. Yeah, no._

 _Leprechauns. Small bonus to END. Heavyweight. Uses Solar magic. Racial passive grants a boost to items created using blacksmithing. Discount Gnomes, except they make stuff. Really good, really expensive stuff. Solar magic is annoying to fight against, but they're basically helpless at night._

 _Pooka. Small bonus to WIS. Middleweight. Uses Song magic. Racial passive grants a boost to items made using alchemy. Mascot race the second. Allied with the Cait Sith. Both of them are welcome in all the territories and nobody declares war on them because they're the only allied races in the game. And the rest of the continent will beat you up afterwards. Fans are scary._

 _Salamanders. Large bonus to STR with a penalty to WIS. Heavyweight. Uses Fire magic. Racial passive allows for resurrection without penalties. The most combative and PvP-heavy race. We wage the most wars. Most of them are against our neighbors, the Sylph. We're also the only race that decides its leader by PvP. Thanks to that, we have a new leader every other month. Eugene and Mortimer probably won't be going anywhere soon though._

 _Spriggans. Small bonus to STR. Middleweight. Uses Illusion magic. Racial passive grants a boost to rarity of items found in treasure chests. The most combative race in a non-PvP context. Really competitive when it comes to clearing dungeons. I'm pretty sure they hold the records for all the current ones, and they're always the first to clear any new ones that get released._

 _Sylphs. Large bonus to INT with a penalty to END. Lightweight. Uses Wind magic. Racial passive grants increased aerial mobility. The magical counterpart to the Salamanders. Would explain why we war so much. The END penalty hurts more than a WIS penalty. It's easier to reduce damage from spells with gear and other spells, but your physical defense doesn't really change that much unless you have heavy armor. Then again, it's also much easier to avoid normal attacks than it is spells, so I guess it evens out somehow._

 _Undines. Large bonus to WIS with a penalty to STR. Middleweight. Uses Water magic. Racial passive boosts the effects of recovery magic. The best support race, with Pooka as a distant second. Easiest and earliest access to resurrection spells, and their passive actually reduces the resurrection penalty by itself. I know some Water magic for self-healing, but it's not something I want to do all the time._

Kirito closed the window.

 _In the end, it looks like Spriggan is the way to go._

 _[ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO PROCEED?]_

 _[YES / NO]_

Without any further hesitation, Kirito confirmed his choice and was swallowed by a pillar of light.

…

 _[Transmigration in progress…]_

 _[Reading memory… 33% complete]_

…

 **One Week Earlier**

 _«SYSTEM ALERT»_

 _[Attention «Players». Due to a minor system error, the «Log Out» feature has been temporarily disabled. Please bear with us as we attempt to isolate and remedy the issue. All players will be forcibly logged out one hour from now, so in the meantime, please conclude your current activities. Upon restarting the server, all non-Renegade players will spawn in their home capitals. Renegades will spawn at the base of the Yggdrasil Tree. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause.]_

"I don't suppose we could put this off until after the server resets?"

"Hah. Well, you can just count yourself unlucky. Wrong place, wrong time. No hard feelings, right Kirito?"

"See, that's kind of what I didn't want to hear…"

Standing across from Kirito in the large room leading to the Salamander Treasury was General Eugene, the current leader of the largest standing army in the game. He was one of the tallest players in the game, even counting the larger-than-average Gnomes, and built like one, wearing decorated crimson full-body armor. Also, accompanied by twenty or so of his elite troops, some faces Kirito recognized from the regular standing army he wasn't officially a part of. It was a rebellion.

"Eugene, we should get on with it," one of the many Salamanders said. "Mortimer's waiting on word from us."

"Don't rush me."

Kirito tensed as the man across from him readied his sword. Any Salamander worth his salt would recognize it as the national treasure, «Demonic Sword Gram». Its stats were already overwhelming enough by themselves, but the real danger of the weapon was in its special ability. When its user attacked with it, the sword was able to pass through one layer of defenses automatically. Whether that was an opposing weapon, a shield, or a magical barrier, «Gram» ignored the first thing it encountered.

"What else do you even need from the Treasury? You already have that sword. Can't you just let me go?"

His question was answered by an attack. Instinctively, Kirito tried to defend against the oncoming strike with his own sword, an item he'd bought from a Spriggan merchant a couple of days earlier. The slash across his torso was a painful reminder of just what he was dealing with. Dropping his guard due to having taken excessive damage, he was kicked aside by the much larger Eugene in short order.

Groaning in pain, Kirito allowed himself to fall limp by the wall he'd collided with. It was useless to feign death since dead Salamanders quite literally burst into flames, but hopefully if he didn't stand back up, the rebel (or was it newly-crowned at this point?) Salamander would leave him alone like the other players he'd already defeated.

"Hmph. That's it? These guards are all talk. I at least expected better from you."

 _Ouch, my pride. Well, this is good enough, right? I can say I tried._

As he lay on the ground, Kirito saw a system notification in the corner of his field of view. The small player emblem next to it caught his attention. It was a message from the current Salamander Lord.

… _Please don't do this to me, Setsuna._

Holding his breath, Kirito subtly manipulated his System menu and opened the message.

 _[Kirito, if you don't die trying to defend the vault, I'll kill you myself.] -Setsuna_

Kirito sighed, materializing his wings for a moment to float to his feet.

"Hm? What's wrong? I was going to do as you asked if you stayed there."

"Damned if I do, damned if I don't…" he muttered, brandishing his sword once more. In contrast to his words, Kirito wore a fierce smile.

Eugene raised a questioning eyebrow. One of the Salamanders standing behind him sneered and raised his hand to cast a spell.

"«Fire Bolt»!"

The smile never left his face as Kirito sidestepped the spell despite its speed and began dashing towards the group to close the distance. His action briefly shocked many of his opponents, since avoiding magic while grounded was typically considered foolhardy at best. True to their experience however, they gathered themselves quickly.

"So you're motivated now? Good! Show me a good time!"

His vision was filled with a familiar blade. Eugene hadn't been shocked in the slightest by the evasion, not that Kirito had expected him to be. Without hesitation, Kirito retaliated. Two swords collided with a spectacular sound of steel clashing. Eugene looked taken aback for a moment as both swordsman staggered backwards from the recoil.

"What?!"

"«Blazing Weapon»."

It was a spell Kirito had learned to combat opponents with high physical defense, one of exactly two combat-oriented spells he could cast without reading from a guidebook, not counting the basic starting spells for Fire magic. The magic took effect and flames roared to life around the blade of his sword.

Another oncoming slash. Bracing his sword, Kirito parried it off to the side clumsily due to its unexpected weight.

"How are you blocking it?" the General demanded.

 _«Gram» ignores the first_ defensive _layer it encounters. Opposing attacks don't count, or else you couldn't block with it, and «Blazing Weapon» covers my sword with a constant layer of damaging flames, which makes it always count as an attack. Not that I'll say that out loud._

Eugene's confusion was due to his unfamiliarity with «Demonic Sword Gram». He had been entrusted with the weapon just yesterday following a major victory against the Sylphs. In truth, similar countermeasures were employed by enemies of the Salamanders, Sylphs especially, but since «Gram» was typically only used by the Lord, and the current Lord shirked this tradition, it had been a while since the sword had seen combat.

 _I told her it was a bad idea to give him the sword. What did she think was going to happen?_

Wordlessly, Kirito parried yet another strike, more cleanly than before, keeping a careful eye on the other players in the room.

Eugene was accompanied by at least twenty people, and there was no telling if more were on the way. Even if he killed the man, Kirito concluded he would not be able to defeat the rest of the invaders. Maybe if he was wielding «Gram» himself and had better armor. Or an ally.

Alfheim was a game with a relatively easy-to-reach level cap and comparatively little benefits to leveling up. Players at the normal max level of 100 had exactly double the base stats of a starting player at level 0, and there were no restrictions on gear or available spells. A beginner could wear the same thing as a veteran, further closing the gap stat-wise, and cast the same spells, albeit with a much greater MP cost and a ridiculously long incantation time. In conclusion, the only thing more levels got you was more stat points.

This meant, with the exception of truly legendary equipment, a single player was severely limited in his or her options against a group. Even the strongest solo player would eventually be whittled down by area-of-effect magic. This disadvantage could be overcome with something as simple as a single ally who could heal or otherwise occupy or divide the focus of opposing mages, but, fighting alone as he was, Kirito was screwed.

Dodging another swing from Eugene and countering with a slash of his own, Kirito winced as he was tagged by another unavoidable spell. Since he couldn't see any sign of his opponent taking damage from the explosive attack, they must have all been in an army unit. Friendly fire was disabled for party members, after all.

 _At this rate…_

Kirito swung his sword in a wide arc to gain some space and leaped backwards to avoid the most recent spell fired at him. It splashed harmlessly over Eugene as he raised one hand to stop his allies from continuing to attack.

"I'll say this as many times as I need to, but your talent is being wasted. How about it? Want to join after we take control?"

"Sorry, but I'm only here as a favor."

"…I see. Always a favor, isn't it? Well, if you ever change your mind, we'll take you on. It's disappointing to me as a general, but we're in a rush. Men, take aim."

As one, the twenty or so Salamanders, Eugene included, began preparing to cast wide-area magic at Kirito. There was nowhere to escape to.

 _I guess that's that then._

The situation had been hopeless from the start. Their short-lived duel, interrupted as it was by spells from time to time, was only due to Eugene's whim. With that in mind…

"Fire! «Inferno»!" "«Flare Burst»!" "«Blast Lance»!"

A multitude of spells raced at him, overlapping voices making it difficult to discern how many people had cast each spell. In response:

"'No hard feelings', right?! «Blaze of Glory»!"

Eugene's eyes widened.

"A suicide spell?! You-!"

And then light consumed the room.

…

 _[Transmigration in progress…]_

 _[Clearing data…]_

 _[Resetting quests…]_

 _[Resetting items…]_

 _[Memory read in progress… 66% complete]_

…

 **One month earlier**

"…Onii-chan, you aren't listening to me, are you?"

A grunt of pain answered the blonde Sylph as a blur of red slammed headfirst into a sturdy tree and bounced off its trunk like a rubber ball. Her waist-length hair, fashioned into a ponytail, fluttered as the blur passed by. Following behind it easily, she floated to the ground with the ease of much practice and gave her brother a flat look as he shot to his feet instantly and rematerialized his wings.

"One more time!"

"Cut it out already! You have to level up sometime!"

"I'm going to learn how to fly first!" Kirito protested. "Leveling can wait. Why am I level zero anyway? Don't most games start you at level one?"

Adopting the familiar pose of disappointment, Leafa crossed her arms underneath her bust. She knew from experience her adoptive brother (cousin in actuality) listened to her more earnestly when she did this, even before she had a large bust to emphasize with it.

"If you had been listening, you'd know that you gain your first level after the tutorial quest. You can't even exit this zone until you do. Wait, where are you going?"

"Trying again."

"«Wind Hammer»!"

The large hammer of wind caught Kirito in the back as he slowly rose and smashed him into the ground facedown. Leafa gave a tired sigh.

"What's the point of being my «Apprentice» if you aren't going to listen to me?"

"…The bonus items?"

Kirito instantly raised his hands in a sign of surrender as he was threatened with another spell. He hadn't gotten around to learning about magic yet, so there was little he could do against it besides try to evade. It was impossible to block magic without using magic yourself. Since his flight skills were just as likely to injure him further as to help, that meant scrambling around on the ground, which he had already figured out was much slower than flying. Plenty of spells had wide areas of effect, which meant the only feasible way to avoid them was through flight.

"Okay okay. So what do I do?"

"Read the quest text! It's there for a reason!"

Chuckling to himself at how easy it was to get her worked up, and quickly stopping when he was glared at, Kirito swiped open his System menu and gave it a brief look.

 _Name: «Kirito», Lv.0, EXP 0/100 (Total 0)_

 _Race: Salamander (Ascension Locked)_

 _STR 120 (+20%), END 100, INT 100, WIS 90 (-10%), Remaining: 0_

Nodding to himself, he opened a different tab.

 _Basic starting equipment. No items, no money, no skills… Wait. Where's the "Skills"? Is it this thing? "Proficiencies"?_

"Hey Sugu-"

"It's _Leafa_ in-game Onii-chan."

"If you get to call me 'Onii-chan', I get to call you 'Sugu'."

"Fine. Kirito…-niichan."

Kirito gave her a triumphant look, to which she responded by turning her head.

"So, where are the Skills?"

"'Skills'? Oh, you're talking about those things in SAO, aren't you?"

"They're in a lot of other games too, y'know."

Sword Art Online, abbreviated SAO, was another VRMMORPG that had been released a couple of years earlier, designed by the same creator. Kayaba Akihiko was considered a rare, once-in-a-century genius in terms of coding and technology. Releasing two games with such immersive and intricate systems spoke volumes of the man's prowess, and both now boasted a playerbase exceeding the hundreds of thousands. Each game ran on numerous servers, so it didn't always feel like there were that many people online, but cross-server events were common. Kirito especially looked forward to the seasonal cross-server war that took place every three months.

"Well, not in this one. I heard the Proficiency system is pretty close?"

Leafa shrugged and twirled a finger in the air, causing a small ball of condensed wind to appear in her hands.

"PvP in this game is really all dependent on your skill. How good you are at flying, how well you can handle your weapon… Magic is the only thing you can improve on that has an actual sort of progression system in Proficiency. You can eventually cast most spells without an incantation, which is a huge advantage in combat for those who can't be bothered to learn the game's language or memorize stuff."

"So… no Sword Skills?" Kirito questioned while giving his starting weapon a few test swings.

"Nope. Magic's the big thing in this game. You can still deal plenty of damage using weapons though."

"No skill levels? Nothing like a «Hiding» skill?"

"Nuh uh. Actually, why is that considered a skill?"

"Beats me. What does leveling up do again?"

"You get stat points. Oh, but your HP and MP don't change."

"Interesting. And Proficiency?"

"You get better at magic as you cast more. Anybody can cast anything in their racial magic tree from the very beginning, but other races' spells are locked behind Proficiency. You have to practice their spells from the beginning."

Kirito's expression suddenly turned pensive. Leafa immediately became wary. Nothing good ever came of her brother thinking deeply about something.

"I don't know why, but I feel like you just thought something really offensive. Anyway, you're telling me I could cast some sort of nuclear explosion right now?"

"I mean, yeah, if you don't mind standing still for a while reciting a bunch of nonsense words. As your Proficiency goes up, the incantation gets shorter and the spell costs less MP, not to mention the spell itself is a lot weaker than normal if you cast it without the minimum recommended Proficiency."

"But, I could totally cast some sort of massive explosion right now?"

"You could cast your race's strongest spell using all your MP right now if you really wanted to and were determined enough to… Ah."

"I'm going to do it," Kirito declared resolutely, sheathing his sword.

Leafa realized her mistake too late. Sighing to herself, she taught him how to message her and left to do other things in the interim. There was no stopping him when he got _that_ look in his eyes. She teleported out of the special tutorial zone using her menu as Kirito began slowly reading from the game's built-in guidebook for spells.

Much later…

"…«Prominence»!"

And so, Kirito blew up the tutorial forest after chanting in the language of the game for over an hour. The reason it took him so long was because he kept messing up. In the end, he ended up killing the tutorial boss by accident and reaching level one on his own. Later, he would learn that the tutorial "boss" was actually a rather common monster that could be killed in a couple of sword swings and decide that magic was largely useless other than for flashy displays, though he did concede that support magic was useful enough to be worth learning. Leafa's insistence that he learn the basics of using magic to attack only reinforced his desire to play the game using as little offensive magic as possible to prove her wrong.

Thus, Kirito leveled up to 100 without firing a single attack spell besides the one he used in the game's tutorial. His sister's exasperation with him was such that it could not properly be described in words. But that's a story for another time.

…

 _[Transmigration in progress…]_

 _[Memory read complete.]_

 _[Erasing temporary data…]_

 _[Changing player attributes…]_

 _[Recalculating player stats…]_

 _[Transmigration Ritual 99% complete.]_

 _Awaiting input__

…

Kirito was vaguely aware of a garbled voice speaking unintelligible words to him as he was blinded by the pillar of light. Moments later, his consciousness deserted him entirely.

…

 _[Initiating secondary memory read…]_

 _[Displaying results:]_

…

 **Six days ago**

 _«SERVER ANNOUNCEMENT»_

 _[Thank you for your patience, «Players». We hope you continue to enjoy Alfheim Online.]_

Respawning in the Salamander capital Gattan, Kirito cautiously looked around for one person in particular.

"No system message yet, so did they not make it?"

"The ceremony is later today."

"GAH!"

Whirling around in a panic, Kirito came face-to-face with the very Salamander he was hoping to avoid. Her face was obscured by a specially-made hood, but having seen it so often, it was impossible for him to mistake the design even if she hadn't spoken aloud.

"S-Setsu-"

"Shh."

Kirito was slightly miffed at being shushed like a child by someone who looked about his age, but he knew better than to make her angry. She was still the Lord of his race, and she had a history of abusing her power in rather ridiculous ways.

 _I still can't believe she had me declared a Renegade for a day._

"Are you… okay?" he tried.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Are you maybe… mad at me?" he tried again.

He couldn't see her eyes, but he was sure they'd narrowed at him. Her glares somehow had the magical property of being able to convey themselves without line of sight. Most of the time, it was the government officials were usually subject to them. That the NPCs also seemed to shrink away from her was a source of much amusement for Kirito and the other Salamanders who frequented the government building.

"Is there a reason I should be mad at you?"

"Ah, no? Probably?"

"Then no, I'm not mad at you."

Kirito sighed, thinking back to how they'd met. Very early on in his Alfheim journey, he'd gone to the capital to participate in a mock skirmish. He wanted to see what mass PvP in the game was like, and the mock skirmishes the standing Salamander army held, free to participate for all challengers, were a perfect way to find out. Everyone knew they doubled as tryouts for entering the army as well, but Kirito wasn't there for that.

His side had lost. Horribly. His own performance had actually been pretty good, but since he wasn't even level 20 yet, he hadn't been placed in command. The player who was assigned the post of commander for their battle was clearly inept at the role. They had dissolved into a disorganized mess after the initial clash, and it had only gone downhill from there. Still, Kirito had managed to kill two opposing Salamanders who were part of the regular army.

His achievement caught the eye of the opposing commander, one Eugene. At the time, the future General of the Salamander army was still just a generic commander. Kirito declined the offer to duel, much to the man's disappointment, but stayed to watch the exhibition match between Eugene and the current Salamander Lord out of curiosity.

Lord Setsuna appeared as a slim teenage girl of about seventeen with short, blood-red hair that stopped at her shoulders, ever so slightly shorter than Kirito, though her avatar wasn't necessarily representative of her actual age or appearance. Kirito imagined she would have resembled his sister Suguha in real life with red hair, minus the "growth spurt" in the chest region. She wore streamlined armor that emphasized movement over defensive capability and insisted on being addressed as a Lord even though other female leaders like Sakuya of the Sylphs were called Lady so-and-so. Like all Lords, she earned her position by defeating her older brother, the previous Lord, who announced beforehand that he planned on quitting. Many Salamanders who thought Gekkou took it easy on his sibling were promptly defeated afterwards by said sibling, often by a hilarious margin.

Setsuna was serious to a fault, blunt with her words, and quick to resolve problems through violence with her superior swordsmanship skills, though her personality softened somewhat when it came to people she recognized as possessing some skill of their own.

She was also notoriously incapable of holding back.

In their bout, Eugene, wielding a large two-handed sword, had been hard-pressed to hit the smaller girl who danced about the arena with a two-handed sword of her own. At the time, Kirito had wondered why she wasn't using «Demonic Sword Gram», since it was well known that the past Salamander Lords all favored it. He reasoned it would make the competition rather unfair, but wasn't half the point of the match to showcase the strength of the Lord anyway?

The match ended when Setsuna had managed to trigger a network of cleverly-hidden spells she had been placing throughout the fight. The conclusion was met with cheers from the crowd, and Eugene shook her hand in a show of sportsmanship after being resurrected. Still, nothing could have prepared Kirito for his sudden introduction to Setsuna courtesy of Eugene himself. He didn't even know how they had found him. Later, he would discover that the current Lord was able to determine his location at any time.

"This one was interesting," Eugene had said.

"You're… new," Setsuna commented in place of a proper greeting.

"I am," Kirito confirmed. "Can I do something for you?"

Setsuna took one look at his equipment and poised a question of her own.

"Why the light armor?"

Salamanders were a heavyweight race. This meant they could equip the heaviest gear in the game without penalties in exchange for naturally shorter flight time. Armor class did not affect flight speed in any way, so most players didn't bother with anything less than the heaviest they could safely use. Both Setsuna and Kirito were outliers in this respect.

On the other hand…

"I like being able to move around."

Ground mobility _was_ affected. Lighter armor allowed players to run faster. However, grounded movement was almost always worse than aerial movement. You couldn't avoid most spells by running from them. Even underground, where races besides Imps couldn't fly, the extra defense afforded by heavier armor in Alfheim's narrow cave systems made most consider it worth wearing over the lighter variants. The only exception to this were the lightweight races, who could run along walls while wearing light armor.

"Weirdo."

"Hey, that's mean. You're the same, aren't you?"

"I guess I am."

Eugene had just laughed boisterously.

"I'm bored of governing."

"Huh?"

Setsuna's seemingly random quip brought Kirito back to the present.

"…Did you give Eugene the national treasure on purpose?"

"I made an arrangement with Mortimer already. He can have the position. He has the strength to keep it too."

"Then why did you make me defend the Treasury?!"

"Part of the agreement. Eugene wanted to test «Demonic Sword Gram»."

Kirito was speechless.

"You…"

"Thanks."

Her smile stopped his rising anger in its tracks. He looked away hurriedly, inwardly grateful that he couldn't blush.

 **«SYSTEM ERROR»**

Kirito blinked.

"What?"

"What?" Setsuna parroted.

"…Nothing. Just my imagination."

"If you say so. By the way, you're going to be declared a Renegade once Mortimer takes office."

It took Kirito a second to process what he'd just been told.

"Eh? Wait, why?!"

"Because I told him to, and because you're dragging your feet. Part of the agreement."

"Why am I such a big part of the agreement?!"

Setsuna simply smirked at him.

"You should get stronger, Kirito."

Kirito paused. The crowd around them seemed to grow louder as his response was lost in the noise.

…

 _[Secondary memory read complete.]_

 _[Multiple system errors detected.]_

 _[Resolving… complete.]_

 _[No further errors detected.]_

 _[Transmigration Ritual complete.]_

 _[Transporting player…]_

…

 **Truro, capital of Spriggan territory**

[Welcome to «Truro», capital of the Spriggan race! To get started, please register yourself as a citizen in the government office. If you are lost-]

Kirito dismissed the system message after skimming the rest and determining that it didn't say anything else important.

"At least they let me skip the tutorial. Oh, and I start with the same weapon. It's been a while since I used this."

His hair was now black, his earring had become a necklace, and he was a couple of centimeters taller than before, but otherwise, nothing had really changed. He was wearing the default equipment for Spriggans too, which consisted of a plain black shirt, grey trousers, and an armored coat, along with the beginner's one-handed sword he had chosen when he was starting out as a Salamander. Tucking the teardrop gem into the front of his shirt, he rolled his shoulders a few times and smirked to himself.

"Oh, before I forget…"

He opened his «Status» window and allocated the one stat point he had at level one. Nodding to himself, he began walking towards the government building.

* * *

Next chapter: Ruins Expedition, First Steps

* * *

 _Name: «Kirito», Lv.1, EXP 0/200 (Total 100)_

 _Race: Spriggan (Ascension Locked)_

 _STR 167 (+51, +10%), END 101, INT 111 (+10), WIS 151 (+50), Remaining: 0_

 _Proficiencies (magic):_

 _«Fire» 287/1000_

 _«Illusion» 0/1000_

 _«Water» 68/1000_

 _«Wind» 102/1000_

* * *

 _Current Party:_

 _N/A_

* * *

 **A/N:** Best enjoyed if you've read or watched SAO up to the end of Mother's Rosario. Based on canonical ALO map. Will eventually feature characters from LNs, games (up to and including Fatal Bullet), and spinoffs, as well as plenty of OCs. Every character with a canon appearance has that appearance. For non-OCs who never appeared in ALO, take their appearance elsewhere and just stick their race's fairy wings on.

100% AU from the very beginning. Nothing canon in either SAO, ALO, GGO, or the Underworld happened and any existing relationships will be explained over the course of the story. The only past events that matter are those that occurred within the virtual world, with very few minor exceptions.

Don't mind the character tags too much; I'd add everyone if I could. Those tagged are the first characters that join Kirito in his daily activities, and as such will be featured the most in the beginning. A majority of the female cast will be friendly with Kirito, but very few will pursue a serious relationship with him. I will not be spoiling the final "pairing", but it is a three-way relationship.

Check profile for updates.


	2. Chapter 2

**-«Arc 1: New Home, New Neighbors»-**

 **Chapter 2 – Ruins Expedition, First Steps**

* * *

 **Truro, capital of Spriggan territory**

Walking out of the half-tree, half-stone government building, Kirito took a moment to appreciate the Spriggan capital.

 _Come to think of it, I've never been here before, huh?_

His experience with Alfheim was limited to the Salamander and Sylph territories, with brief forays into Imp lands and neutral ground in the middle of the continent. The Salamanders lived in the middle of a massive desert region, and the Sylphs lived in the middle of a gigantic forest. The Spriggans also lived in a massive forest, but their architecture was much more nature-inclined than the Sylphs.

Anyone who had ever been to the Sylph capital of Swilvane would remember the ludicrously-tall spiral towers made of some material that resembled marble. Their buildings were made out of the same material, and most of the other major settlements in the territory had at least one structure made of the same, usually the local NPC ruler's home.

In stark contrast to the man-made feel of Swilvane, the Spriggan capital of Truro looked like a place one might expect stereotypical fantasy elves to reside. Many of its buildings were built into the side of trees, and what free-standing structures there were had ivy crawling up the walls. The tallest buildings in the city were the watchtowers positioned along its outer edges, and the Lord's mansion in the center looked like a giant chopped down the biggest tree he could find and plopped a house down on the stump.

"Welp, time to get to work. Where are the starting quests for Spriggans, anyway?"

According to his sister, every race had their own set of starting quests that gave a substantial boost to new players. Looking around for any sign of a quest-giving NPC, Kirito began wandering through the capital aimlessly. It would have been faster to fly, and he wouldn't have to worry about his wings running out of energy since it was the middle of the day, but he was in no rush. Might as well take in his new capital city while he was here.

After almost half an hour of sightseeing and fruitless searching, he was beginning to think he should have asked for directions while he was registering himself as a citizen. There were plenty of NPCs to be found, but not a single bright yellow exclamation point that would have indicated a quest.

 _At least the server's pretty empty today._

"Hey, you. Are ya lost?"

Apparently his confusion had shown itself on his face. Kirito turned to face the speaker, only to find it wasn't a Spriggan who'd addressed him. The telltale cat ears and tail of a Cait Sith made it difficult for them to blend in even if they changed their hair color from the default gold, and this one hadn't even bothered trying to hide her features. Three distinctive whiskers adorned each of her cheeks, a cosmetic feature many Cait Sith were known for using, and she wore a light-green cloak over a grey shirt and white shorts. A golden-furred tail peeked out from behind her, the same color as her shoulder-length hair. Realizing the girl was still waiting for his response while he was busy contemplating what it felt like to have a tail, Kirito coughed slightly to cover for himself.

"Ah, actually I'm new. Just started."

"Oho? Don't get that many newbies around nowadays. This server's mostly for the vets, after all." The Cait Sith girl scrutinized him slightly before smirking. "Are ya looking for the starting quests? There technically aren't any. Spriggans are a treasure-hunting race, y'know?"

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah. It was something the second race leader came up with. He repurposed the quest-giving NPCs to make them organize dungeon expeditions instead. So the starting quests were replaced with 'starter expeditions' into some of the easier dungeons in this territory. You can't get into the higher-end dungeons without a pass from the administration."

That was the same as when he was a Salamander. He had been issued an all-access pass for dungeons in Salamander territory shortly after he hit the level cap. He later found out that it was automatically given to anybody who hit level 100.

"The Spriggan government actually has an agreement in place with the other races," she continued as if lecturing him. "A Spriggan can enter any race's dungeons, but anything you find is automatically reported to the race leader. The race that owns the dungeon gets first dibs on buying stuff you decide to sell that you found in one of their dungeons."

"Huh. That's convenient."

"Isn't it?"

"So how do I register for one of these expeditions?"

The Cait Sith girl tilted her head sideways slightly.

"You shoulda seen the NPC in the government building if ya were just there."

Kirito did recall seeing several administrative NPCs in there, but he hadn't bothered checking too closely. The racial governments of Alfheim were decided on by players, but the day-to-day operations of said governments were usually automated. Why do the paperwork yourself when you could delegate it to an NPC? In effect, this meant that the Lord and the various commanders of each race's standing armies were usually the only players involved in government activities. NPCs that handled the rest just took up residence in the government building, which was what Kirito assumed all the NPCs he had seen were. He had always found it somewhat strange there was any paperwork to begin with, but he had never bothered really checking it out.

 _Even in a gAmE, you can't escape from reaLiTY_ …

 _«_ _System error detected. Isolation successful._ _»_

"I must have missed them earlier…"

"If you were more experienced, I woulda recommended joining the expedition I'm putting together, but you should probably get some levels under yer belt before that."

"You're leading an expedition?"

"Not leading. I'm posting a request on behalf of the Cait Sith. Well, in reality I just got permission from our Lord to use government funds for this. You could say I'm something of an… expert consultant."

"ARGO! THERE YOU ARE!"

The Cait Sith girl jumped slightly at the sudden exclamation from behind but didn't bother turning around. Instead, she smiled mischievously and gave Kirito a friendly pat on the shoulder as she deftly maneuvered around him.

"Sorry, but that's my cue to skedaddle. See you around, maybe~!"

"A-ah, thanks for the help."

Argo raised a hand in acknowledgement as she quickly took flight and gave a shrill whistle. Moments later, a thin green dragon that Kirito recognized as a Green Wyvern spawned out of thin air and flew underneath her so she could mount it.

"You'll never catch me alive, Sinonon!" Argo crowed as the monster carried her off, accelerating all the while as it broke past the canopy of trees above.

"Wait, Sinon-san! I'm not sure it's a good idea to go any faster-"

"AFTER HER!"

Kirito blinked as another Green Wyvern flew overhead, clearly in pursuit of the fleeing girl. He couldn't see the top of the wyvern from his position, but from the voices it sounded like there were at least two people riding on it. In seconds, both monsters and their tamers had vanished beyond the roof of the forest, leaving a small hole in the branches and leaves that was already slowly shrinking as the foliage returned to its previous state.

"…I really want to ride a dragon now."

…

Half an hour later, Kirito was once again walking through the streets of Truro, except this time he was headed towards the nearest exit. His destination was the Ancient Ruins of Alf, located in the southernmost region of Spriggan lands, right outside of the Cornovi Forest that surrounded the capital and covered much of the race's territory. He would slay any monsters he found on the way, but overworld monsters in Alfheim were all weak. Nothing above Lv.10 lived on the surface in any of the race's territories. This was partly to encourage exploration, but also to facilitate travel in lieu of any sort of fast-travel mechanic. The only way to get around Alfheim was to fly. You could also get yourself killed outside of a dungeon to respawn at your race's capital, but it was exceedingly difficult to do.

To fight more powerful monsters and level up faster, one had to challenge the games dungeons and eventually advance towards the center of the continent. Kirito would have loved to go straight to Alne and level up by repeatedly challenging the Yggdrasil Tree, but it was suicide to travel there alone since monsters in the neutral territories could be as strong as Lv.90 or higher. Unlike players, monsters' raw stats grew exponentially the higher their levels got. Players had to compensate for the difference in strength with equipment and teamwork.

 _Speaking of which…_

"Nori, Merida, and… Gon, right?"

"Nice to meetcha!"

"Mm?"

"Oi, why did you pause at my name?"

Kirito's three temporary party members each reacted differently to his addressing them. Nori was a taller-than-average Spriggan girl wearing leather armor with a metal breastplate, all dyed in the traditional black of the Spriggan race. She had a long staff slung over her shoulders that she periodically shifted to a different position. Merida was just shorter than Kirito and was dressed like a ninja, complete with lower face covering, headband, and two short swords crossed behind her back at waist-level. Gon was the tallest of them by far, towering at least a foot above Kirito, and had the physique to match. When he first saw the man, Kirito had wondered if he was a Gnome in disguise. He wore half-plated armor Kirito had a hard time believing wasn't heavy-class, and his metal gauntlets were inscribed with dimly-glowing runes. Since he carried no other weapons, it was safe to assume he was either a straight brawler, a mage, or some cross between them. Kirito had learned early on not to judge by appearances.

They'd all registered for an expedition to the Ancient Ruins, and it was Nori who suggested they travel together. The Spriggan was all smiles as she walked with one arm around Merida's shoulders. Her absent-minded female companion seemed used to it, judging by the lack of reaction. From the short introductions they'd gone through earlier, Kirito learned that the two of them were long-time friends who happened to be back in Truro in time for a special expedition that was planning on conquering the depths of the Ancient Ruins once and for all. It wouldn't be the first time an expedition claimed such a thing, so it was more of a coincidence than them coming back because of it. Gon, an absolute giant of a man in every sense of the word, was just some random adventurer who joined because it seemed interesting.

 _Wonder if it's the same one that Cait Sith was talking about earlier._

The expedition Kirito signed up for was only going until the third floor, and it was rumored that the Ancient Ruins were as deep as the Yggdrasil Tree was tall. If one were to translate it into terms of number of floors, the legendary Spriggan dungeon would have roughly thirty. However, nobody knew for sure. Several parties of people had already successfully climbed the Yggdrasil Tree and gained the right to break through the initial level cap, but nobody had cleared the Ancient Ruins yet. The current record was twenty-five floors.

"You can probably tell, but I'm kinda new to this whole dungeon thing."

"Aren't you new to Alfheim in general? I mean, you're level 1," Gon pointed out.

"Y-yeah, I suppose. I did a lot of practice in the tutorial zone though," Kirito responded with his prepared excuse. It was flimsy, but hopefully it would let him get away with displaying a little skill. Once he was at a high enough level to solo dungeons, it wouldn't matter. He'd be back at the cap in no time.

"Pfft. Everything in the tutorial zone's a joke," Nori scoffed. "I mean, I guess you could train your Proficiencies really slowly there, but you're better off forgetting all the monsters you fought. The real thing is much faster, stronger, and harder to kill."

"Right. Well, I was wondering if you guys had any tips for a beginner? Like where I should go to level up after the starting expeditions?"

Gon and Nori looked at each other over Merida's head, but it was the ninja-like girl herself who spoke up first.

"Expeditions."

"Yeah, it's gotta be expeditions, right?" "Yeah, that about covers it."

Kirito blinked. Seeing his confusion, Gon cleared his throat to elaborate.

"You'll learn everything you need to by going on expeditions. Your seniors will teach you stuff about the game that's important, and the rewards will probably be better than anything you could get otherwise. There's a strong incentive for Spriggans to go dungeon-diving."

"Really? What if I were to solo a dungeon?"

"Before that, let's fly," Nori interrupted. "We're coming up on the city gates. You know how to use your wings, newbie?"

Kirito was slightly peeved at the new form of address, but didn't let it bother him too much.

"Yeah. I told you, I practiced a lot."

"Oh really now? Well, try not to fall behind!"

As one, the four Spriggans lifted off from the ground and headed south.

…

"Y'know, I keep forgetting you're a low level. Are you sure you're new?"

"I have some experience with sword fighting. Mostly kendo."

"Isn't all that stuff outdated? I wouldn't think it would work in real combat."

"You can apply some of the principles behind certain moves."

"Oh really?"

From anyone else, her statements might have sounded offensive or at least abrasive, but Nori somehow avoided that. Kirito shrugged as he swooped lower to kill a random monster wandering below them. Nori herself gave a flying monster in their path a solid whack with her staff, sending it Kirito's direction for him to finish off as they flew. Gon and Merida ignored the monsters and flew at a higher altitude, safely hidden by the latter's Illusion spell, aptly named «Camouflage Veil».

Kirito's brief foray into the Illusion magic tree was disappointing to him. Sure there were neat tricks like the «Disguise» and «Mimic» spells, but nothing really stuck out to him as particularly amazing. He was planning on trying the «Shadow Clone» spell out for kicks, but after asking Merida about it, he learned that the clones were truly just illusions and could not deal damage. In fact, the Spriggan's racial magic tree didn't have a single damage-dealing spell.

 _Not that I was ever a mage to begin with, but really? Not a single one?_

To be fair, plenty of Illusion spells caused indirect damage through status ailments or trickery, and there were several extremely convenient utility spells like one to reveal hidden presences that worked on dungeon walls and traps, one to forcibly change the target of another spell, and even one to temporarily change an enemy's party affiliation to cause friendly fire.

 _Come to think of it, that last one is actually kind of powerful, isn't it? Alright, I'm learning that later._

"What level are you now?" Nori called out from above.

"Just hit level 5."

"Nice. Don't want you getting too far ahead of the curve now, so let's haul ass."

"Got it. Thanks for the help."

Nori's worries were something Kirito was familiar with. In her eyes, he was a rookie. Nothing good ever came from giving a rank amateur more power than he knew how to handle. All told, Kirito wasn't in that much of a rush anyway. He'd have plenty of opportunity to level up once he was in the dungeon.

"Finally done messing around? Good, then let's speed up," Gon said as Kirito and Nori rose to join them.

"Aw, shut up, ya big baby. We've only been flying for a couple of hours," Nori returned.

"Yeah, and it'll take a couple more hours to get to the rest stop at this rate."

"Oh yeah, well I'll race you! C'mon Merida! Keep up, newbie!"

Putting on a burst of speed, Nori quickly flew off, with Merida following behind after a short moment of surprise. Gon and Kirito were both left behind, staring after the pair of girls as they widened the distance.

"So that's how you wanna play it, huh? Fine!"

And then Kirito was alone.

"…Wait, like hell I'm going to lose in a race!"

…

"How… did… you beat me here…?"

"Ahahaha, obviously you're just a slowpoke! Nice going, newbie! Too bad though, you're still a long way from beating us!"

"Mm, good job, I guess?"

 _You had a head start…_

Kirito didn't verbalize his answer to any of them from his position sprawled out on the ground. Flying consumed stamina the same way running did, so it was no wonder that he, who had pushed himself to overtake Gon in the final segment of their impromptu race, was left in such a state. As it was, Kirito was content to stay on the ground as he waited for the rays of the sun to rejuvenate his body. Fairies regained energy by having their wings absorb light from any non-artificial source, with the sun and the moon providing the most energy. In areas without sunlight or moonlight, flight was impossible for all but Imps.

After a few minutes, Kirito got to his feet and looked around. Gon was still half-sulking on the nearby bench Nori and Merida had vacated earlier. The two girls were off buying supplies from one of the many NPC vendors scattered about the large clearing that served as an in-between point for those traveling to and from Truro from the south. Other than the capital cities, smaller towns and settlements were generally only located near landmarks like the Ancient Ruins or at the mouth of passageways through the mountains that divided some territories. Large, uninterrupted stretches of nature were common, and, within those stretches were dungeons that randomly spawned. Other than the one major dungeon in each race's territory, these random dungeons served as the main source of non-story quests. Quest-giving NPCs at outposts nearby would automatically start giving out quests for the new dungeon until it inevitably despawned after a certain period of time, so the outposts were gathering points for players.

More importantly however, the outposts doubled as military bases in the event of a war, where the main objective was to capture and occupy as many of your enemy's as possible. Victory in war was achieved either by killing the enemy Lord, capturing the enemy capital, or occupying more than two-thirds of the total outposts of all races involved for an entire day.

 _Most of the time though, one side surrenders after it's obvious they've lost. Actually, most formal wars where both sides agree on a start time are settled by just one battle between armies._

Walking over to Gon, Kirito decided to try and strike up some conversation.

"So… are there always so many non-Spriggans around?"

"Huh? Yeah, I guess… Wait." Gon paused and took a second look around. "Now that you mention it, no. You get a lot of Undines and maybe the odd Cait Sith, but this outpost isn't close enough to anything for the other races to bother showing up."

There were enough differently-colored wings to represent more than half the races in Alfheim. Players were free to alter the aesthetics of their character in any way, but wings always bore the racial crest and could not have their color or shape changed. Besides the predominant black wings of Spriggans and the odd pair of orange Cait Sith wings here and there, Kirito also saw several pairs of purple Imp wings, the distinctive royal blue of Undines, and even a couple of golden Pooka wings. He was both relieved and slightly disappointed he couldn't see any Salamanders or Sylphs.

"Maybe a rare dungeon appeared."

"Does that happen a lot?"

"Eh, from time to time. Maybe once a month? Info brokers always go nuts for info on rare dungeons when they pop up since quest NPCs never tell you when they do, so I wouldn't be surprised."

Kirito hummed noncommittally as he surveyed the gathered players. With a population of just under three hundred thousand, Alfheim could be said to be pretty active at all times of day. In his time as a Salamander, he'd personally participated in wars involving over a thousand players on both sides. Still, the chaos of a battlefield wasn't the same as the hustle and bustle of everyday life, and he never spent much time in the Salamander capital of Gattan, so this was all new to him.

"Anyway, never mind that. Just how much practice did you get in the tutorial zone for you to be that good at flying? Are you some kinda genius? Maybe a pilot in real life?"

"A… pilot?"

 _«_ _System error detected. Isolation successful._ _»_

"I mean, have you flown before?"

"How would I have flown before if I'm new…?"

"That's what I'm asking you… wait, uh. Right."

Gon blinked a couple of times, seemingly confused by his own question, before shaking his head and adopting a more serious expression.

"Forget about it. Got any tips? How did you get faster at the end?"

"I don't know about tips, but I did use Wind magic to speed up."

"WHAT?! YOU CAN DO THAT?!"

Surprised by the man's sudden roar, Kirito took several steps back, but Gon was unrelenting as he quickly closed the distance and put both hands on the shorter Spriggan's shoulders.

"Teach me!"

"'T-teach', you say. It's not really that complicated though? One of the Sylphs' starting spells is a minor flight-speed booster."

"I never knew… I demand a rematch! My pride won't let me lose to a newbie like this!"

"Oho? So you were hiding something like that up your sleeve? Not bad at all, newbie. I mean, a lot of players use it, so it's not exactly new tech, but still."

Both Gon and Kirito turned to see Nori walking towards them with her quarterstaff slung across her shoulders.

"You mean I'm the only one that didn't know?!"

"Mm, don't worry. About half the players don't? Everyone who's high level does though."

Kirito jumped as a familiar voice spoke up from the bench. Merida was calmly sitting there with her face covering lowered.

 _Since when was she…?_

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN THERE?!"

Whack.

"OW!"

"Keep it down already! We're right next to you!"

"Uu…"

The sight of Gon hanging his head in shame was met with laughter from the surrounding players who had been attracted to the commotion.

"The two of you ready to go? Good. Then let's get going!"

Kirito shrugged and followed along. It wasn't like he had anything to do in an outpost since he was still dirt poor.

 _Can't touch any of the other dungeons while I'm signed up for an expedition either. I'd quit, but I can't get into the Ancient Ruins otherwise, and I really want to see what it's like inside the so-called "Bottomless Dungeon"._

…

About an hour later, Kirito slowed to a stop with the rest of his party members, though he didn't know why they were stopping. There was still at least half an hour until sunset.

"We should probably set up camp soon."

"Ah, it's about that time isn't it?" "I guess…"

Merida's suggestion was met with verbal agreement from Gon and Nori. Kirito, however, was still confused.

"Why? We could probably make it to the Ancient Ruins by tonight, right?"

"And what, camp out next to the dungeon? No thanks," Nori said.

"Isn't there a town nearby?"

"Y'know, I don't get you sometimes," Gon interjected. "How can you be so good at flying and fighting at the same time as being so clueless? You must be a secret genius."

"What Gon means to say is, towns close their gates at sunset. You can leave, but you aren't allowed in. It's not like the capitals where you can just come and go whenever. Besides, aren't you tired? The moon gives less energy than the sun, so most people don't fly at night. Just camp out and relax. We'll be up bright and early tomorrow."

Nori finished her explanation by materializing a portable camping set out of her inventory. After tossing it into an empty spot on the ground, it expanded into a tent and covered the surroundings with a slight glow. Kirito recognized it as a common anti-monster barrier.

 _Probably shouldn't mention I'm used to fighting at night…_

Military activity wasn't limited to daytime after all. Many a night raid had resulted in important Sylph outposts being conquered as the Salamander army advanced towards the Sylph capital. If not for the same being done in return, the victory ratio would have been skewed heavily.

"You should set up your tent too. Don't be embarrassed if it's plain or anything, all newbies start with a basic one."

Kirito shrugged and brought out his own camping set. After watching the tent and accompanying barrier erect itself out of thin air, he set off in a random direction. He almost ran face-first into Merida.

"Where are you going?" she questioned. It was an innocent enough question, but Kirito was shaken by her sudden appearance.

"L-leveling up. I figure I should practice some more while I have time."

"Stay safe then."

Without further ado, the Spriggan dressed like a ninja walked past him and towards her own tent. Kirito didn't notice when she had set it up.

 _And the plot thickens… She could take being a ninja less seriously. I swear she's using Illusion magic to surprise us for fun._

Sighing to himself, Kirito willed his wings to lift him up and flew off into the forest with his sword drawn.

It took him less than a minute to reach an area where he could no longer see or hear the rest of his party. Just to be safe, he kept going. There was no danger of getting lost thanks to the map in his «System Menu». Being part of a party had many advantages, such as nullifying friendly fire, being automatically targeted by party-wide support magic, and the ability to track fellow party members using the map. However, it also meant that any experience earned was divided equally amongst the party.

Kirito was acutely aware of how weak he currently was. Stat bonuses aside, he had nothing but the basic starting gear, a plain one-handed sword and set of leather armor. His participation in the starter expedition was just to give him the level boost he needed to begin dungeon-diving in earnest.

When he was a Salamander, he had plenty of help leveling up, and in the beginning, he essentially just tagged along as his sister went around beating up monsters in the center of the continent. Leafa didn't mind since she'd convinced him to play ALO so they could spend more time together in the first place, but it had bugged him for a while until he was strong enough to contribute. He was far from the level of an experienced veteran, but he could pull his weight in a fight better than most, and he had earned his Ascension after clearing the Yggdrasil Tree the same as any other player. His time in SAO served him well, even if there were no Sword Skills or System Assist in this game.

Back in SAO, Kirito had been a solo player. Transitioning to Alfheim, where party play was the norm, forced him to adapt. If not for Leafa, he would most likely be lost. Then again, his sister was the whole reason he decided to try a new game in the first place. That's right, it was a new gamE…

 _«_ _System error detected. Isolation successful._ _»_

In the end, he'd only been in Alfheim for a month. Kirito was aware that if it came down to it, he probably wouldn't have stood a chance against any of the other races' heavy hitters, the so-called «Aces». The true top players of the game. Compared to them, Eugene was a joke. That might change once he got used to «Demonic Sword Gram», but even then, he'd have to improve his swordsmanship skills considerably. There were only six «Aces», and only half of them had Mythical-class items.

Mythical-class items were artifacts from Norse mythology. One copy of each item existed at any given point in time, and every race had one as its national treasure.

The Cait Sith's «Gungnir», the Gnomes' «Megingjord», the Imps' «Helskor», the Leprechauns' «Jarngreipr», the Pooka's «Gjallarhorn», the Salamanders' «Gram», the Spriggans' «Draupnir», the Sylphs' «Laevateinn», and the Undines' «Brisingamen». In addition to those, the Spriggans were also awarded an item for being the first to climb Yggdrasil, but nobody but its Lord knew what the item was. There was also the «Holy Sword Excalibur», an item forged by a Leprechaun that was later granted Mythical status. The Leprechaun in question became known as the «Mythical Blacksmith» for his achievement.

It was the dream of every player to own a Mythical-class item, and those who did were generally idolized by others. Had he been in Alfheim for longer, Kirito thought he would probably idolize them too, at least to an extent, but having personally fought against two wielders of «Demonic Sword Gram», his expectations were understandably tempered.

No, Kirito respected the top players much more than he did a player who happened to own what amounted to a rare item. It had already been proven time and again that ownership of a Mythical item didn't guarantee victory.

 _Still… the rare item collector in me wants to own at least one of them someday._

However, before that, Kirito was like any other player. He wanted to be well-known and respected. When he first learned about Alfheim's «Aces», from the very beginning he set foot on the continent, he decided that was his end goal.

«Lunar Flash» of the Cait Sith, «Absolute Sword» of the Imps, «Great Sage» of the Undines, and «Dungeon Master» of the Spriggans were the combat-oriented «Aces». The first three were the strongest monster user, weapon user, and magic user, respectively, and the last was of course the top dungeon clearer. In addition to them, there were also the «Genius Songstress» of the Pooka and the aforementioned «Mythical Blacksmith» of the Leprechauns.

Kirito wanted to join their ranks. It was pretty much the whole reason he had been considering Transmigration for the past couple of days. His being declared a Renegade just cemented his decision. Setsuna had said the new Lord Mortimer wouldn't restore his status unless he joined the army, which was something he didn't want to do.

 _I'm also half-convinced Setsuna did it to mess with my sister. Then again, I like messing with her too, so it's all good. We'll see each other again soon enough. Sooner if she figures out where I went._

Kirito's thoughts were interrupted by the telltale chime of a system notification.

 _«SYSTEM ALERT»_

 _[The Salamanders have declared war on the Sylphs. Hostilities will begin in one hour.]_

It took him a couple of seconds to process the message. His initial surprise was more due to the timing than it was the content. The last war between the two races just finished a couple of days ago.

"Well, at least some things never change."

 _«SYSTEM ALERT»_

 _[A Sylph outpost has been occupied by Salamanders!]_

 _[The Sylphs and Salamanders are now at war!]_

Kirito facepalmed.

"…Yep, some things never change."

With that, he dismissed the notifications and began killing the local wildlife to level up.

-FW:FoY-

 **Swilvane, capital of Sylph territory,** **POV Sakuya**

In the government building of the Sylphs, one woman gave an exasperated sigh. This being a game, it wasn't difficult to design a visually-appealing avatar, but she was consistently voted within the top ten of the official unofficial list of most beautiful players of Alfheim, something she took a small amount of pride in. Taller than the majority of the population with a figure to match, a waterfall of dark-green, almost black, floor-length hair framing perfectly-proportioned facial features, and wearing a green kimono that added to the image of grace she portrayed, Lady Sakuya of the Sylphs possessed a beauty that was rare even among the sea of attractive female avatars in Alfheim. Her title was a permanent epithet that was given to her even before she became her race's Lord.

Across from her, standing at attention, was a Sylph commander who had burst into the office seconds earlier following the system alert that the Sylphs and Salamanders were at war. Again.

"I should be surprised… actually, no. I shouldn't. What's the point of declaring war if you're just going to immediately attack?"

"Sakuya-sama, your orders?"

Sakuya huffed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Almost a year of ruling took its toll. Even if she found the various activities she did as a Lord fun, she was considering quitting if she had to deal with one more hot-headed Salamander invading her territory practically unannounced. It wasn't like she used the national treasure that often anyway.

"Why ask me? Just have Sigurd or someone else in the army take care of it. That's why they're in the army, right?"

The man who'd asked the question had a troubled expression.

"But, you're the Lord…"

"And as your Lord, I am delegating responsibility for handling this war to the commanders of my standing army. Now shoo. I'm don't have the patience to deal with the Salamanders today."

"Y-yes ma'am."

Once she had the office to herself, Sakuya gave an even more exhausted sigh before slumping in her chair. Despite how the action caused her hair to pool on the pristine floor of the room, it was a pose she adopted often along with the classic forward lean because both accentuated her already prodigious bust further. She found it endlessly amusing how many male players would suddenly lose the power of speech during a negotiation when she changed how she sat.

 _All the benefits of beauty with none of the back pain. They do realize this body isn't real, right?_

Putting aside the lack of support in a video game for actions of a promiscuous nature, Sakuya had no qualms with using everything she had to her advantage. That being said, she drew the line at visual appreciation. Anyone who got handsy usually had said hands removed along with various other appendages, and her lack of a personal guard was not for show. That being said, dismemberment wasn't an option in Alfheim, so she settled for death as an alternative. It had been a long time since anyone had been dumb enough to try, but there was always someone.

Sakuya had briefly entertained the idea of dating someone online before, but had discarded the idea just as quickly. Vanity and appearances aside, it was too easy to lie online. She sighed again as her thoughts returned to the most recent declaration of war.

"Honestly, three wars in a week? No, in five days? The new Salamander Lord is a little too fond of conflict. Doesn't he know soldiers need rest too? Does he not sleep?" She paused in her rant to herself just long enough to extract a (non-alcoholic) drink from her inventory and down it in its entirety. "I mean, really! They're the ones with hostile neighbors! The Cait Sith-Pooka alliance has never started a war! What will they do if they're invaded by the Imps?"

A portion of her frustrations vented, the normally patient woman stood and made her way to the door of her spacious office, intent on providing some basic direction to her army despite what she had said earlier.

 _If I don't tell them what not to do, Sigurd's just going to meet them head-on like an idiot again._

Not for the first time, Sakuya lamented the lack of decent Sylph commanders. It wasn't that the Sylphs lacked military power, or that they would lose in a straight confrontation, but she considered the strategy of "Charge!" that most players favored to be foolish in the extreme and a product of misplaced bravery that had long crossed the border into stupidity. Her footsteps carried her to the ground floor of the government tower in short order, where she found the man from earlier struggling to explain something to one of the NPC receptionists. When he noticed her descending the stairs, he panicked. Her expression became more severe when she saw him, which only made him panic more as she steadily approached him.

"L-Lady Sakuya! I-"

"Why are you still here?" she asked once crossed the marble floor of the lobby.

"Well, I was trying to send a message to Lord Sigurd…"

"'Lord' Sigurd?"

"Eep! I-I mean, um-"

"Remind me what you do around here?"

"I'm a… secretary?"

"Of who? I don't have any secretaries. In fact, I don't remember assigning any new government positions."

The man went silent. Sakuya sighed irritably. She noted that she seemed to be doing that more often nowadays. Maybe it was time to retire?

"…I don't have time to deal with this."

She saw her interrogation target visibly relax as she turned her attention away. That wouldn't do.

"You're fired."

"Wha-"

"If I see you in my office again, or in any government office, I'll declare you a Renegade. Same goes for Sigurd. I'm tired of his transparent power plays."

Sakuya strode purposefully out of the large archway of the government tower without bothering to see what effect her words had on the man she'd left behind. Materializing her wings on her back, she flew low to the ground as she headed towards another of the large spiraling towers that were unique to the Sylph capital Swilvane. She reached her destination within minutes and quickly found who she was looking for.

"Fuka, Karen. Can the two of you do me a favor? Also, where's M?"

* * *

Next chapter: Ruins Expedition, First Death

* * *

 _Name: «Kirito», Lv.7, EXP 411/950 (Total 3524)_

 _Race: Spriggan (Ascension Locked)_

 _STR 180 (+57, +10%), END 107, INT 117 (+10), WIS 157 (+50), Remaining: 0_

 _Proficiencies (magic):_

 _«Fire» 289/1000_

 _«Illusion» 1/1000_

 _«Water» 68/1000_

 _«Wind» 105/1000_

* * *

 _Current Party:_

 _Nori, Lv.72 Spriggan; uses a quarterstaff; cheery and sarcastic_

 _Merida, Lv.73 Spriggan; dual-wields two tanto; dresses and acts like a ninja_

 _Gon, Lv.60 Spriggan; brawler and mage; has a deceptively large build_

* * *

 **A/N:** Not all named OCs will play important roles, but they will be persistent characters. As always, check my profile for updates.

 **Running list of OCs:** Setsuna, Gon

*This list is for those of you who may not be familiar with characters from non-animated content. Any character whose name does not appear here has a pre-defined canonical appearance and/or personality that I will mostly staying true to. Some characters, like certain members of the Sleeping Knights and Mortimer, may not ever have appeared in canon. They will not be listed as OCs, but the personalities I create for them may as well make them OC-like.


	3. Chapter 3

**-«Arc 1: New Home, New Neighbors»-**

 **Chapter 3 – Ruins Expedition, First Death**

* * *

 **A/N:** If you came here after having already read the first two chapters weeks ago, I urge you to reread them since major edits were made since they were first posted. As usual, check my profile for status updates. This A/N will be removed when I upload chapter 4.

* * *

guests: Please make an account so I can respond to your reviews properly without taking up space in the the fic itself.

Q: Why magic instead of sword skills?

In my opinion, sword skills are less flexible than magic. However, the main reason I have chosen to not include sword skills is to limit system-assisted motion. This serves the dual purpose of emphasizing the importance of the individual skill/effort/willpower it takes to execute certain movements as well as making the few times the system moves someone more memorable.

Q: OCs?

They will never be the main focus, and they are vastly outnumbered by the sheer number of characters available in SAO canon/spinoffs. Many are, however, crucial to the overarching plot of Fairy Wars. Especially deities and high-profile players.

Q: Plot?

Patience. It'll unfold over time, like a proper plot. Starting this chapter.

* * *

 **Sylph territory 2nd southwestern field outpost, POV M**

Asougi Goushi, also known as Gou by most of his friends or M by the woman he was in a twisted "relationship" with and basically anyone else, considered himself to be a dutiful man.

Years ago, Gou had been an overweight boy stalking an attractive waitress he admired. One night, the object of his affection was attacked while he was following her. Through his efforts, he managed to save her from her assailant, but was injured in the process. After a series of events involving him being invited to her apartment, being confronted with the knowledge that she knew he had been stalking her, and then being threatened with legal and extralegal action if he didn't do as she said, Gou ended up in a pseudo-relationship with her in which he basically acted as her slave.

Not one to give up so easily, he devoted himself to her service in hopes of turning the relationship into something more, losing weight and becoming quite the capable individual in the process. The waitress in question, one Kanzaki Elsa, eventually became an idol singer, and he became her manager. However, even after several years of association, their "partnership" hadn't shown any signs of changing, and, more recently, Gou realized he was okay with the way things were.

"M, is it our turn yet?"

"Please be patient, Elsa."

Currently, Gou and his partner, Elsa, called Pitohui in-game, were camped out at the edge of one of the Sylph territory's many outposts.

Gou's avatar greatly resembled his real appearance, with the same semi-tall, athletic build and short hair, except it was a deep green instead of black. By contrast, Elsa's avatar looked nothing like her. Pitohui was a slightly-tanned woman with long, black hair tied into a ponytail standing barely taller than Gou's avatar. Two long bangs framed sharp, predatory facial features, including a vaguely cross-shaped tattoo nobody knew the meaning behind, and she wore a skintight black bodysuit over her lithe body that, combined with her hair and height, often got her mistaken as a Spriggan or an abnormally-tall Imp. Her size was a frequent subject of jokes saying she and Setsuna of the Salamanders had swapped races by accident. With both being prominent fighters of their respective races, it was easy to make the comparison. Gou had once asked Elsa if she had any intention of becoming Lord, but she told him she had no desire to rule over the other players.

" _I only need one person doing as I say," was it?_

Gou stopped the half-smile that was forming on his face and refocused his attention on keeping watch towards the southwest.

Outposts in Alfheim had no default names and were instead usually referred to according to their location within a race's territory relative to its capital city. Every race's capital was either on the shore or very close to it and roughly equidistant from each of its borders with the other races' territories. Outposts nearest the border were always called "border outposts", the ones closest to the capital were "capital outposts", and anything in-between were "field outposts". Additionally, field outposts were numbered according to the number of outposts between it and the capital. Thus, the second southwest field outpost they were stationed at was southwest of Swilvane and had two outposts between it and the capital city (one field outpost and the capital outpost). On a side note, there were also "dungeon outposts" and "mining outposts", but the former was only used in Spriggan territory, and the latter was only used in Gnome territory, and other races still referred to the same outposts by their more commonplace names.

"I wonder if we'll see your Nii-chan there, eh Leafa-chan?" Elsa wondered.

"Maybe."

Gou glanced over his shoulder to see Leafa approaching from the center of the outpost. Soon after, he dismissed her presence as irrelevant and returned to his vigil.

"That's a rather weak reaction there, Leafa-chan. What's the matter; did you two get into an argument? Want me to beat him up for you?"

"Not really."

"But you look so sulky. I bet he said something rude or stupid again. C'mon, what do you say we beat him up together, Ms. Brocon?"

"I don't want to hear that from someone who calls her partner M…"

Elsa laughed heartily at the rebuttal.

"It's important to be honest to maintain a healthy relationship, Leafa-chan. Why don't you try being honest about what you think of dear old 'Onii-chan'?"

"I love him and I think he's the best big brother in the world," Leafa returned flatly.

 _Well, she's definitely being honest at least._

"It was more fun when you reacted. Maybe I should send Kirito-chan a message and invite him on a date?"

Gou just barely restrained himself from turning around and vetoing the idea.

"He won't go on a date with you," Leafa responded confidently. "Besides how often you two kill each other, he knows your real personality. Onii-chan's smarter than that."

Rather than be offended at Leafa's blunt assessment, Elsa laughed harder.

"Actually though, he suddenly disappeared from my friends list. I only found out when I checked yesterday. He was a Renegade for about a week, but last I heard from him a couple of days ago, he was just waiting in Alne for his name to be cleared, as usual. We've spent the last week at war, so I haven't really been able to check on him personally or go anywhere, but if this keeps up I'm thinking of taking some leave from the army. Setsuna's not responding to me either, though half of that is probably because us being at war blocks messaging…"

"Hmm? Maybe he's cheating on you with her?" Even as she teased her fellow Sylph, Elsa navigated through her system menu, eventually coming to a stop at her own friends list. "Huh. He's gone from mine as well."

Sensing he was about to be asked the same, Gou spared a moment to check his contacts.

"I don't have him in my list," he spoke over his shoulder.

Elsa seemed to think of something as a grin stretched across her face.

"Hey, Leafa, how sure are you that he's still here?"

Gou blinked.

 _Ah, come to think of it_ … _after passing the trials, the next step would be_ that _huh? I always wondered why he was taking so long._

"Onii-chan wouldn't quit without telling me."

"Are you sure he's still a Salamander?"

"What are you talking about? Why wouldn't he be a Salamander?"

Elsa smirked even wider in anticipation. Gou took the chance to distance himself slightly from the impending fallout as she whispered in Leafa's ear.

 _Y'know, I think that's the first time I've seen a player avatar visibly inflate with anger. Is that a new feature?_

"SETSUNA!"

-FW:FoY-

 **Spriggan territory dungeon outpost (southern border outpost)**

The first thing Kirito noticed when he neared the famous dungeon outpost for the Ancient Ruins was the large holographic display in the center of the clearing made up of four separate screens facing in different directions. On each screen was the same list of ten names, two of which Kirito recognized.

"Curious?" Nori asked from beside him.

"Is that a ranking board?"

"Got it in one. Those're the top ten party leaders, ranked by how far down their parties have gone in the Ruins. It's updated once a month, and you can't run for Lord unless your name's up there. Also, any party higher than the current Lord's is exempt from all forms of taxes, even if nobody in it's a Spriggan. Pretty sweet deal, right?"

Kirito examined the board more closely as he and his party members approached. The name at the top was «Dungeon Master» Lars, followed by «Absolute Sword» Zekken. The third-place name, Nor, was highlighted with the Spriggan Lord's emblem next to it. As he drew nearer, Kirito also noticed the numbers next to each name, indicating their floor record. Lars' party, the Sky Divers, held the record at twenty-five. Zekken's Sleeping Knights trailed at twenty-two floors, and every party afterwards didn't even reach twenty.

"Why are so many parties stopped at the 19th floor?"

"20th Floor Boss," Merida answered.

"It's a mirror that spawns different minions depending on the party that challenges it," Nori elaborated. "I think they're called doppelgangers?"

 _So you have to fight copies of yourself in addition to whatever the mirror does? Probably reflects spells?_

"Huh. I guess that would be pretty hard to beat."

"No kidding. Zekken basically challenged the boss solo and I think Lars did the same," Nori said. "I mean, that's what I heard," she added hastily.

Kirito, however, had already stopped paying attention. Instead, he was focused on a familiar sight in the distance. More specifically, he was zeroed in on the gigantic Green Wyvern resting nearby.

And then he ran, or flew, into someone.

Two exclamations of surprise and an exchange of apologies later, Kirito looked back towards where he had seen the Wyvern just in time to watch it disappear into particles of light as it was dismissed by its tamer. Said tamer was lost in the crowd of people milling about the busy outpost.

"-rito? Kirito!"

"Huh?"

He turned to see Nori brandishing her staff in his direction. She nonchalantly rested it over her shoulders when he shot her a flat look.

"Woulda served you right for ignoring a lady. Anyway, our meeting point's on the other side of the dungeon, and yours should be over thatta way, so this's where we say goodbye."

She held out a hand that Kirito took, and they shook hands firmly. Merida offered a nod of her own from behind her companion. Kirito belatedly noticed Gon was nowhere to be seen.

"He already zoomed off on his own and said bye to all of us. You probably weren't paying attention," Nori said when Kirito asked about him. "You gotta be more aware of your surroundings, newbie, or else you're monster food in the dungeon, party or no."

"Yeah, thanks. It was nice traveling with you."

"Mm. Good boy. Nice traveling with you too. Maybe we'll see each other again someday!"

With that, the temporary party officially disbanded.

…

 _On my own again, huh. I wonder if Sugu's discovered I'm gone yet? Sucks that the ritual wipes your friends list. I should have thought of that earlier. She's gonna get on my case about it later for sure…_

With no method of fast travel, instant messaging was a crucial communication tool for any player. However, only Lords and government officials could send messages to players who were not on their friends list. That being said, players could also pay a fee to send a message via a special mail NPC to any other player they knew the name and race of. Friend requests could also be sent this way, and Kirito planned on using that service once he had the money to do so, since it was just barely too expensive to send one with his initial starting funds. Surely, his sister could wait a day or two, right? It wasn't like they'd spoken every day since starting the gAMe anYwaY…

 _«System error detected. Isolation successful.»_

 _«Synchronization rate has surpassed designated threshold. Isolated errors resolved.»_

Kirito paused.

 _Actually, we_ have _spoken pretty much every day, haven't we? Uh oh._

As he contemplated the amount of trouble he might be in, Kirito had the misfortune of flying into yet another person. The difference being, this time the other party took offense to his inattentiveness.

"Hey, watch it!"

"Ah, sorry-"

Before he knew what was going on, Kirito found himself held aloft by his collar several meters off the ground. His wings had ceased functioning.

 _Eh? What? Why?_

"Want me to drop you? What's the matter, little fairy? Can't feel your wings?"

"Oi, Humbert, cut it out. Don't cause a scene here."

Kirito calmed his momentary panic and observed the scene with curiosity. The man holding him by his shirt was an Imp judging by his wings, and he was accompanied by a Sylph, the first one Kirito had seen since becoming a Spriggan.

 _Is it magic? Is there a spell that disables flight, and if so, how soon can I learn it? Actually, it would make sense that Imps, who can fly underground, might be able to force the conditions of underground combat on others._

All sense of crisis had already abandoned Kirito at this point. He was an okay aerial combatant, but objectively speaking, Kirito knew that he was in the top percentage of the game's grounded combatants. His confidence stemmed from his sister's repeated assertions of this fact and his near-undefeated record while sparring as a Salamander in underground arenas, where flight was limited.

"Hey, how are you doing that? Is it a Dark spell? What level is it?"

Both Humbert and the man with him paused at Kirito's innocent questions.

"You're a strange one," the unnamed man said, a half-mocking smile on his face.

"Eh? Am I?"

Suddenly, Humbert shook Kirito forcefully.

"Are you stupid? Do you know what's going on right now? I'll drop you!"

"I've crashed into the ground faster than anything you could manage," Kirito stated matter-of-factly.

"Are you making fun of me?!"

The Sylph man laughed at his companion.

"I take it back, Humbert. Continue making a fool of yourself, please. I'll be going on ahead to the meeting point."

"Wait, Raios? What about-"

"He apologized. Some things aren't worth the time," the now-identified Raios called over his shoulder as he flew off.

Humbert clicked his tongue in annoyance and glared at Kirito briefly before letting go, going after the Sylph. As he had not yet regained control of his wings, Kirito plummeted.

"At least tell me what you did…!"

…

"Oof!"

Kirito landed ungracefully in the forest, somehow managing to avoid any branches on his way down. This was a bad thing, since it meant he impacted the ground with nothing to break his fall. If it were possible to crater the ground with fall damage, he was sure the force of his descent would have left a nice Spriggan-shaped imprint.

Pushing himself to his feet shakily, Kirito took a moment to regain his bearings. He materialized and flexed his wings a few times experimentally to make sure they were working again as well. He made a mental note to thoroughly check the system spellbook for Dark spells to inhibit flight, but he didn't expect to find anything. If you knew the incantation and had enough proficiency, you could cast anything, but many spells weren't listed until you reached a certain proficiency level. The only exception to this was a player's own racial magic. Despite having been a former Salamander, Kirito had not bothered to learn any Fire spells besides «Blazing Weapon» and «Blaze of Glory», so he suspected the Fire magic portion of his spellbook would be a lot shorter than before as well.

 _Unless Transmigration lets me keep registered spells. I doubt it though…_

A quick check confirmed his theory. All the spells above proficiency level 300 in Fire magic were gone. Sighing to himself, Kirito prepared to liftoff, only to find he was unable to. It was only then that he noticed how tired he felt. It was the familiar exhaustion that came from flying for too long.

 _That settles it. There's a spell that simulates underground conditions and drains flight energy. I'm going to learn it somehow._

Kirito forced himself to ignore the "fake" fatigue generated by the system and started walking in the direction of the dungeon outpost that was his meeting point again. The debuff would likely wear off sooner or later, and then he could fly the rest of the way. His expedition was scheduled to start in the afternoon, so he should still have time. The Ancient Ruins had four player-maintained outposts surrounding it in addition to the dungeon outpost that was there by default, along with a town built on the Undine side of the dungeon that Kirito had not bothered to learn the name of.

"West is… that way," he muttered while checking his map.

Not even a minute after he began walking, Kirito felt his stamina noticeably recovering. Rather than relief, his mind was already back on the spell. Sixty seconds was more than enough time for even lightweight races to run out of flight energy.

 _The question is, is the spell activated by touch? I was flying fine until he grabbed me, right?_

While he was thinking, Kirito made sure to pay attention to where he was going this time. Being on foot, there was a much smaller chance of accidentally bumping into someone, but that was no reason to make a mistake for a third time. Thanks to his increased diligence, he noticed the signs of a camp in the distance. It was too close for it to be one of the gathering points, so it could only have been other players.

On a whim, Kirito decided to stroll into the campsite. He encountered another player immediately: a male Cait Sith who seemed overly fond of the color blue. Blue eyes, blue shirt, dark blue pants, and light blue sword. He had blond hair with matching fur on his ears and tail. Kirito idly noted that there were three tents, which meant there were at least two more players around somewhere. Also, the sword looked more like a work of art than an actual weapon, but appearances could be deceiving.

"Um… hello?" the blond Cait Sith greeted.

"Uh, hi."

 _In hindsight, why did I casually walk into someone else's camp?_

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a moment. Kirito noticed the Cait Sith seemed to be cautious of him for some reason. Wracking his brain for something to defuse the tension, Kirito blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Nice sword."

"…Thanks?"

 _And the first thing I do is compliment another guy's sword. Is this the start to a dirty joke?_

More silence. Kirito pretended to look around as he tried to come up with something else to say, but the other player coughed to draw his attention. On the bright side, he seemed less on edge, so Kirito supposed he had succeeded, somewhat.

"Can I help you? Are you lost?"

 _That sounds familiar._

"Ah, no. Just curious, I guess."

"Is this your first time seeing a campsite? You should have a camping set of your own, and Truro's not exactly close…"

"Sorry, that's not what I meant. I was just wondering who might be out here." Kirito scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Uhh, oh yeah! I mean, there's so many outposts and even a town around here, so I was wondering why anyone would camp so close to them. Are you here for an expedition?"

The Cait Sith winced slightly, humming noncommittally to himself for a few seconds as he considered how to respond.

"Yes, we are. However, we have our reasons for not wanting to show up too early. Actually, it'd be best if we didn't show up until it started…"

Kirito almost didn't catch the last part. Before he could ask anything else though, another head peaked out from one of the tents. Taking in the surroundings with a glance, the player crawled out and got to his feet, revealing a well-built man wearing a set of deep-blue robes. Kirito bit down the impulse to ask if blue was their favorite color. The new player had at least had an excuse since the crest on his clothing revealed him to be an Undine.

"Eugeo-kun, you should have told me we had guests," the man said to the Cait Sith.

"Sensei, you told me not to bother you. Aren't you supposed to be hiding?"

"Why would he be hiding?" Kirito interjected.

"Yes, Eugeo-kun, why would I be hiding?" the man asked wryly. "And if I were in fact in hiding, why would anyone reveal the fact that I were in hiding?"

Eugeo froze and looked between the Undine and Kirito uncertainly, before drawing his sword and pointing it at the latter.

"Sorry. This is all my fault, but you have to die now."

"Eh?"

"I'll find a way to pay you back later, don't worry!"

Kirito's instincts told him he was in danger. Despite the distance separating the two of them, Kirito's instincts were telling him Eugeo was about to cut him down. He hurriedly drew his own sword and faced the Cait Sith warily.

 _Is it a flight-assisted attack? But nobody can move that fast, even with wings. Then, a spell?_

"«Water Bullet»."

Before either player could make a move, the Undine fired a blob of water that drenched Eugeo.

"Cut that out. I don't remember telling you to kill anyone. Besides, what were you going to do, get yourself arrested right before the expedition? There's a town nearby y'know."

"Oh. R-right," Eugeo replied while brushing strands of his hair out of his eyes.

Alfheim encouraged PvP, but it wasn't strictly an open-PvP environment. In neutral territory, everyone was free game, but outside of outside of formal duels and designated PvP areas like arenas, killing any non-government-affiliated player within their racial territory made you a temporary Renegade to the victim's government. Renegades were targeted for capture by NPC guards, and all other players had free license to kill them. Any Renegade that was caught or killed forfeited a set percentage of his or her total wealth to the other party. That being said, there was still plenty of incentive to kill other players regardless for the experience points. At higher levels, while it wasn't exactly slow to level up by killing monsters, it was much faster to PvP. It was the main reason why Kirito had been able to hit the level cap so quickly after just starting.

"But, what should I do then?"

"You could try challenging him to a duel."

"He doesn't have to accept though?"

"Just do it. Something tells me he will."

Eugeo looked at his Undine companion in confusion even as he turned to face Kirito again.

"So he says. Will you duel me?"

 _[You have been challenged to a duel by «Eugeo».]_

Kirito didn't even hesitate to accept. He was always up to fight strong opponents, and his battle instincts had been screaming at him since earlier. Plus, if Eugeo really was a high level, it would give him a nice experience point reward for winning.

"I accept."

"Alright, here I come!"

The Cait Sith immediately sprang into action. There was no waiting period or anything for duels; they started the moment both parties consented.

"«Rock Wall»."

This time, he ran face-first into a conjured wall of hardened dirt.

"Sensei, why?!"

When the wall receded back into the ground, Kirito was treated to the comical sight of his would-be opponent holding his nose and glaring petulantly at the Undine off to the side. His light-blue sword clattered to the ground after having been embedded in the wall.

"Manners. Introduce yourselves first."

"You never made me introduce myself before!" Eugeo cried indignantly as he snatched his weapon up from the ground.

"What's that? 'I want more training?'"

"You never train me even when I ask you to!"

Teacher and student stared at each other for a moment.

"…I'll tell _her_ ," the Undine stated simply, emphasizing the last word.

"I'm sorry please forgive me my name is Eugeo nice to meet you."

Kirito blinked.

"Um. I'm Kirito."

"Kirito-san, then?" the Undine said. "Well, you may or may not have heard of me, but my name is Chrysheight. Good luck, and don't worry; I'll resurrect you afterwards. Okay Eugeo-kun, it's all you."

 _The «Great Sage»?!_

Kirito's shock almost caused him to miss Eugeo taking a drawing stance. They were still separated by several meters, even after the Cait Sith had charged into the earth wall.

"…call. Set."

 _What did he say? Wait, is he-_

"«Flash»!"

Any further thoughts were banished from his mind as Kirito's body was bisected by light.

-FW:FoY-

 **?**

"And now, the first players have assembled," a deep male voice grunted.

"I only saw four. Where are the other five?" a female voice answered him.

"There are far more than nine players this time, my dear," a different voice, also female chimed in.

"I would hope so. One has already fallen far short of expectations. A pawn?" the same female scoffed.

"You are entirely too fond of that game, but in this case, I feel there is an apt analogy to be made. What pawn fails to fulfill its duty in the heart of enemy territory?" the second female replied.

"You all speak too much," a much softer voice admonished them in almost a whisper, its owner's gender impossible to discern. "The game has finally begun."

"Indeed, the seeds are sown," the first voice growled. "Now, they've all seen it. This time, the game will have a loser."

"Will wisdom be man's undoing once more?" the second female wondered. "What say you, Mimir?"

"It will make the quest more interesting," a new voice spoke up in response. "Although, I feel the need to warn you one last time: the games gods play will be their undoing. The loser may very well be one of us."

"Hmph. If it happens, it happens." "Hah. We'll see about that." "That too, would be amusing." "Shh."

-FW:FoY-

 **Cornovi Forest in Spriggan territory (near dungeon outpost)**

In Alfheim, there was no such thing as dismemberment, at least not when it came to players. Even a strike that passed cleanly through a player's body would not permanently remove any limbs, only causing a brief flicker in the target area as the weapon passed through it. By extension, while such a strike may inflict a lethal amount of damage, it was impossible to have one's body bisected.

Kirito grit his teeth against the painful feedback provided by the system and devoted his full being to analysis of the attack he just witnessed.

 _A streak of light. «Flash»? There are no sword skills in the game, so it must be a spell of some kind. Cait Sith. Lunar magic? It's the middle of the day. Then, an innate skill of the weapon? More importantly, is it blockable?_

Eugeo had his sword poised to strike again.

 _It followed the path of his sword last time. In that case…!_

"«Flash»!"

The light blue sword was swung vertically. The plane of light followed. Kirito threw himself to the side while keeping his sword parallel to the ground. He felt the impact immediately as he was blown backwards.

 _Physical! It's his weapon!_

Even as his wings flared to life to control his trajectory, Kirito was already preparing to counterattack. The moment he felt his feet touch the bark of a tree in his path, he pushed off it with explosive force. He saw Eugeo's eyes widen in surprise at his actions, but the Cait Sith's blade didn't stop. Instead, Kirito saw his opponent's eyes harden.

"«Dual Flash»!"

A two-part strike. Logically, the two strikes would come from different directions. Having braced himself this time, Kirito successfully parried the first, eliciting a shocked "What?!" from Eugeo, and prayed it was not a simultaneous attack. His prayers were answered in a way even better than he expected. Since he had deflected the initial slash, Eugeo had failed to unleash the second.

The distance shortened to within a couple of steps. Kirito was close enough to hear what he thought was the incantation this time.

"Call: «Jump»!"

Kirito's blade cut only air.

 _High-speed movement!_

"That's two, Eugeo-kun! If you have to use three, I'm telling!" Chrysheight said in an almost leisurely tone.

 _He has more?!_

"Sensei!"

Eugeo's complaint fell on deaf ears. Kirito wasn't fooled.

"«Fla-" "«Firebolt»!"

"Uwa-!" "Oho? A Fire spell? Not bad…"

Kirito's spell sailed through the space previously occupied by his opponent's head as Eugeo hurriedly took to the skies before just as quickly returning to the ground and eyeing Kirito even more cautiously.

 _If it's a physical skill, it can't cut a magical spell. But still, this is bad. If he can just move around wherever he wants and fire off that skill any time, I'll never win. There has to be a limit._

"«Flash»!"

For the second time, the blade of light failed to cut its target. Perhaps wary of being blocked, Eugeo hadn't opted for the dual version. Kirito decided to conduct a few experiments.

…

 _In conclusion, he can't use either technique in the air. That's about it._

Kirito spent the past several minutes trying to approach his opponent, only for Eugeo to escape every time. «Flash» and «Jump» could seemingly be used indefinitely, though whether that was because they actually cost nothing to use or the MP was being recovered faster than it was being consumed was up for debate. Kirito couldn't force Eugeo to use the skills consecutively without risking his own neck, and he wasn't about to try and force a resolution to their current stalemate without more information.

"Are you two going to just stare at each other all day?"

As if that were the trigger, Eugeo sighed heavily.

"I give. I'm sorry, Kirito-san."

"Huh?"

"You're a skilled swordsman. Much more so than me, at least. If I didn't have my sword to help me out, you would've won already."

"So… does that mean you forfeit the duel?"

"No, and that's why I'm apologizing."

Kirito instantly raised his guard to the maximum.

Eugeo murmured something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "I'm gonna get Sensei in trouble too" and raised his sword above his head with the blade facing towards the ground. Without hesitation, Kirito leaped as high as he could with his wings assisting him.

"Not good enough! Release: «Bloom»!"

Ice materialized out of nowhere once the blade of the sword pierced the soil and caught the retreating Spriggan's feet, quickly growing until it encased most of his body. Kirito saw his already-low HP rapidly drop until it stopped at 1. His senses started fading, his vision and hearing slowly turning dark until he could barely perceive his surroundings.

 _Wha-? There's no Ice magic in Alfheim! Is his sword Mythical-class or something?! Who the heck is he?_

"-ash»!"

Light once more filled Kirito's vision.

And then he saw blue.

"And that's that."

It took Kirito a second to realize he was looking at Chrysheight's back. The Undine was apparently floating in the air without the use of his wings. When he looked down, he saw that the man was actually standing on a platform of water. It took him even longer to realize he no longer bound in a prison of ice. As for how he was also managing to stay at his current altitude unaided by flight, he had, at some point, begun standing on the same liquid platform, which was surprisingly stable for something made of a fluid substance.

"What…?"

"Well, I guess it's my turn to apologize for this, Kirito-kun. Can I call you that? Anyway, it is true that the both of us—well, three of us—are here hiding out from the rest of the players, but now that you know who I am, you can probably understand why, right?"

Still trying to make sense of everything, Kirito could only nod dumbly.

"And so. We aren't here to cause trouble or anything and would appreciate it if you kept our presence here a secret. Our meeting here was pure chance, and the only reason I bothered to greet you in the first place was because… well, you're like us."

"Huh?"

"I'm surprised you haven't noticed it yet. Although… ah, you… I see. Ascended, but also reincarnated, is it? Would it make more sense if I told you I used to be a Sylph? I guess that makes you more like me than Eugeo-kun over there."

Kirito looked down at his opponent and found him lying face-down on the ground.

"Honestly, I warned him not to use three, and what does he do? Use the most demanding one. In the end, I guess he wanted to make it a draw out of respect for you. If it makes you feel any better, he was just about out of energy anyway when he decided to go all-out. You could have won if you had a way to withstand his trump card."

"…Huh?"

"…Really, Kirito, you can't still be surprised."

"Of course I can!"

"See? You _can_ formulate a proper response."

Biting back his retort, Kirito took a moment to gather his thoughts.

 _Eugeo is ascended. A High Cait Sith. He beat the Yggdrasil Tree and passed the trials. Same with Chrysheight, except he also went through the Transmigration Ritual. Okay._

"…So you made us fight because?"

"I wanted to see your skills. Also, I wanted to see if Eugeo could learn anything from you. Now that I look more closely… are you actually only level 7? That's amazing! Do you want to stick with us? You could teach Eugeo swordsmanship, and we'll help you level up with our third member. She's newly-reincarnated too! Although, I'm still slightly puzzled why she chose to become a Pooka of all things. Her dragon misses her."

Kirito had half a mind to punch the man for causing him this much trouble for him on a whim, even if it had originally been his own whim to wander into their campsite. Even now, the Undine was still chattering away, completely ignoring Kirito's lack of response.

"Sorry, I can get carried away sometimes when I talk. So, how about it? Wanna join us? If you join now, I'll throw in a free offer to learn magic from me!"

 _Judging from what Eugeo said, that offer's pretty worthless._

"Can I punch you instead?"

"No," Chrysheight denied immediately, as if on reflex. Then he blinked. "Wow, I think you'll get along with her just fine. She asks me that all the time."

 _This is the part where the mysterious third person in their party shows up and reacts spectacularly to everything that's been going on._

"Oh look, there she is now! Here, let me introduce you!"

 _Called it._

Chrysheight wasted no time in lowering the two of them to the ground, keeping a strangely-tight grip on one of Kirito's arms the entire time. Kirito had the brief thought that this might have been what death row prisoners felt like as they were marched to their execution.

"Chris… you have ten seconds to explain why Eugeo is out cold on the floor."

The girl he was suddenly thrust in front of like a shield was, in a word, cute. Medium-length blonde hair, ever-so-slightly shorter than average, smallish build, wearing a cute blue frock plus white apron combo that wouldn't have looked out of place on a common villager NPC if not for the silver armor that adorned the shoulders, torso, and skirt. Also, she was currently exuding an aura that promised deadly violence if she didn't like the answer to her question. Said aura was seemingly channeled into a golden sword Kirito almost mistook for a picture of Excalibur he'd seen once.

"Um. Alice? That might take a little longer than ten seconds."

Kirito froze. He didn't have to look at Alice to know she definitely wouldn't like that particular answer to her question.

"By the way, this is Kirito! It's mostly his fault since they got in a duel."

 _CHRYSHEIGHT, YOU BASTARD!_

"Oh really. Nice to meet you, Kirito-san. My name is Alice."

"N-nice to meet you, Alice…"

"Could you do me a favor and come here?"

Kirito felt himself being pushed forward forcefully. He nearly tripped, but still managed to collide straight into Alice.

 _This feels nice. WAIT NO._

Scrambling to separate himself from the personification of "angry vengeful female", Kirito was already prepared to face death. It was okay. Death wasn't the end in Alfheim. He would recover. But, when he almost fearfully met Alice's gaze, he found she was smiling angelically.

"Don't worry, Kirito-san. I know it's not your fault."

"O-oh?" He swore he just heard the words of salvation.

"Mhm. After all… it's always your fault, Chrysheight! «FLAAAAASH»!"

Time slowed to a crawl. Kirito inexplicably found himself standing in the path of Alice's golden sword. Why? Wasn't he cleared of all charges? His eyes strayed over to the true criminal. The mastermind. He saw the Undine smiling unapologetically. Chrysheight mouthed something.

" _«Substitute»."_

Everything was still moving in slow motion. Kirito remembered that word from somewhere. Where was it? Oh right. His spellbook. An Illusion spell. The effect was to make two people's appearances swap places temporarily. Kirito remembered this spell because it was among the spells Merida had told him she found useful in the Illusion magic tree, along with her favorite «Shadow Clone» spell and a few others.

 _I see. So that's what happened._

And for the third time that day, Kirito's vision was filled with white.

* * *

Next chapter: Ruins Expedition, First Clear

* * *

 _Name: «Kirito», Lv.7, EXP 206/950 (Total 3319)_

 _Race: Spriggan (Ascension Locked)_

 _STR 180 (+57, +10%), END 107, INT 117 (+10), WIS 157 (+50), Remaining: 0_

 _Proficiencies (magic):_

 _«Fire» 290/1000_

 _«Illusion» 1/1000_

 _«Water» 68/1000_

 _«Wind» 107/1000_

 _«?» 1/?_

* * *

 _Current Party:_

 _Alice, Lv.10 Pooka (former Cait Sith); cute, but really scary when angry_

 _Extras:_

 _Eugeo, Lv.110 High Cait Sith; likes the color blue a lot_

 _Chrysheight, Lv.110 High Undine (former Sylph); completely shameless_

 _Friends:_

 _Nori, Lv.72 Spriggan; somehow added herself to my friends list?_

 _Merida, Lv.73 Spriggan; probably convinced by Nori to add them both here_

* * *

 **A/N:** Check my profile for status updates. I often make small edits to chapters within a day or two of their release, and all changes to previous chapters are always logged there until the next chapter is posted.

If the POV isn't specified, it's Kirito. Any thoughts belong to the character whose POV it is. Mini-blurbs after party members in the Current Party and Extras post-chapter section are Kirito's thoughts regarding those people.

For those of you waiting to see certain characters, most of them will not join him on his adventures this early. Less than half the cast is planned to make some sort of significant appearance (more than a passing mention, but possibly as little as Argo's brief interaction with Kirito) in this first arc, and Kirito's party will be rather small until he levels up more. Expect short timeskips of a couple of days to a week starting after the events of his first expedition.

 **Running list of OCs:** Setsuna, Gon

*To add on to the last note, any OC who is mentioned, but does not make a physical appearance in the story is not listed here and is also not worth remembering, with obvious exceptions like the «Aces» and other players with titles or important positions.


End file.
